I’ve read many descriptions of hair cycles and the differences in them for different sections of the body but cannot find information on how many hair cycles people have on average (I imagine they are a succession of partially overlapping cycles).
How many are occurring, how long is a hair cycle usually and how long does it take for a cycle to return? The relevance is of course, after how many treatments are you retreating a previous cycle?
Hope all your treatments are going well!
In most areas, you seem to go through all your hair cycles in about a year (give or take a few months). Obviously this can vary widely, but it’s a good starting figure. Whether you do laser or electrolysis, you should be finished in 12-18 months if you are treating regularly. Each hair cycle can last 2 or 3 months or something similar to that depending on the area. If after 18 months you are not done (or almost done) with your hair removal in an area, you may need to consider the possibility that you are developing new hair and address that problem (or perhaps you just didn’t stick to a schedule that allowed for each cycle to be treated.
Hair goes through 3 phases: anagen, catagen, telogen. How fast the hairs cycle vary by body area.
http://www.laserhairremovalprocess.com/a-physiology.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/837994-overview
I was hoping they were more frequent and overlapping. A year means an area missed in treatment won’t be treated again for twelve months. Oy, this is a major problem in treating large areas. Well, somethings better than nothing -
Thanks y’all.
Yes, you are kind of right. But they DO overlap quite a bit, normally. Those are the phases for each individual hair, but only 20-25% of the hair is active at a time, and a lot of it is at different phases at first. After your first session then they are more synchronized though. Kind of like after a wax.
What matters for laser is when the hair is in anagen, because that’s when it can be affected. So that’s 3-6 months at most, not 12.
That’s good to know because I doubt I’ll find that perfect laser operator who never misses a spot, or is glad for me to come in and get the missed hairs after every treatment (after three weeks though I’ll ask them - maybe they would).
You two are like lighthouses amid these treacherous waters.
If more than 10% is missed/doesn’t fall out, you should ask for a free touchup at that point. If it’s 10% or less, it’s not a huge deal.